Page 40 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

“Why wouldn’t I be? If they’re happy and they love one another, who cares?”

“I guess. I just worry what the club would think if they found out.”

“Then maybe your club isn’t that great a place to be.”

“Hey now! I never said it bothered me, no need to get an attitude. I’m well within my rights to worry about how other people will treat them though. They might not always get shit right, or things I like, but I would die for either of them.”

I nodded as my eyes filled with tears. It was oddly sweet to hear Merc include my father in that sentiment. I felt the same about Boone, so I didn’t know why it was weird that Merc could love my father that much.

“I’ll just go get my things.” It took me a minute to realize that I needed to finish getting dressed too. I was wearing a pair of shorts, fuzzy slippers with floppy dog ears hanging on each side, and a flannel shirt that allowed for easy button-down access to my boobs for Declan. “Shoot! Could you hold him for a minute while I go get dressed? Sorry, it’s just been non-stop this morning with dirty diapers, feeding the little piglet, and trying to feed myself in between all that.”

“You don’t have to apologize for needing help with our boy,” Merc told me as he held his arms out to accept our son. Our boy. It was weird to hear him acknowledge that fact now.

13 - Becoming Friends

Merc

We ended up going to Babies R Us, which was located smack dab between the naval base and the air base in Charleston. Normally, if I was in this area on my bike, either I received longing stares from the assholes in uniform or scathing glances. The latter came from the ones who could smell the freedom on the wind behind me and knew they would never taste it for themselves. The former, just longed for the day that their time was up, and they could join our ranks and belong to a civilian brotherhood.

Lily didn’t seem to notice any of them, though they certainly noticed her. You would never know, thanks to the clothes she had on, that she had a baby just three days ago. There had to be some changes to her body, besides those tits of hers that had grown so much, but the clothes she wore hid everything except the overabundance of cleavage and I wasn’t even sure whether to be happy about that or pissed at the attention she was attracting because of it.

“Are you sure you want to go in with me? I can just hook the carrier to the front of a cart and do this on my own. You can head off to wherever the men go.” She tipped her head toward some of the other places along the strip of shopping hell that we were in.

“Nope. We’re doing this together,” I informed her and then replaced the scowl I knew was on my face with a quick smile. “Let’s go.”

Before we even made it out of the parking lot and to the store’s front doors, we were stopped by one of the punk-ass sailors who had been eyeing my wife.

“Lily Ashburn? Is that you?” The man called loudly, making sure he had her attention. Lily turned and grinned so widely at the dick that it knocked me back a step. I’d never seen her look so genuinely happy to see someone. What the fuck?

“Killian!” She shouted before closing the distance to the man and wrapping her arms around him. “Oh my God! Are you stationed here now?”

He shook his head. “No. I’m on a Destroyer out of Jacksonville. Just up here to see family before we head out for a few months.”

“Oh! Well, I’m glad I got to see you before you deployed?” She questioned. “Or is it underway? I can never keep it straight.” Her teasing tone was something I didn’t think I ever heard from her, at least not in that light and airy way she was speaking to the asshole.

He just grinned at her, and I didn’t think the fucker actually heard the words Lily spoke because he was having too hard a time keeping his eyes on hers instead of her tits.

“Lily,” I called to her, and it broke whatever trance the two of them had been in. I knew that she had been a virgin when we had sex, but it was obvious that there had been something between them at some point.

“Oh, sorry,” she hesitantly offered. Then pointed from Killian Jefferies to me, as if I didn’t know who he was when we had gone to school together since middle school. “Killian, do you remember Mer-um-Damon,” she stumbled over my name. I would have found it funny in any other instance, but it was just then that I realized she hadn’t called me by my given name since I’d earned my road name when I married her.

I tipped my chin up at the guy as his eyes bounced back and forth between the two of us. Then, like a lightbulb went on over his head, a knowing spark lit up.

“Right! You guys are neighbors!” How the fuck did that prick know that? “Listen, I have to get going in a few, but I’m here until the end of next week on leave. I’d love to take you out to dinner, catch up, and maybe…”

Thank fuck my son had perfect timing. He started squalling and reaching his little grabby hands out of the infant carrier I was still holding in my hand. It caught Killian’s attention immediately. He grinned sloppily, which I was not anticipating.

“How did I know that you’d knock some chick up within a year of graduating?” He laughed hard and then turned to Lily. “It’s awesome that you’re helping out, but don’t you think that’s something his unfortunate baby’s mom should be doing?”

Lily’s happy demeanor melted away into a sour, pucker-lipped expression. “Considering I’m the unfortunate baby momma,” she started to tell him, but I butted in.

“And my wife,” I tacked on just to piss the dick off.

“No fucking way! You married that guy, Lily?”

“We do have a baby together,” she informed him.

“Yeah, but, he’s…” he let his words trail off while he stood there looking completely wrung out. What the hell had gone on between the two of them? “I guess congratulations are in order.”

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